Thread by @rob_sheridan

Trump won on a campaign of racist white grievance. Shout “economic anxiety” all you want, but we all know why he won. And it’s very clear that he’s going to double down HARD on that strategy for 2020. So let me, a straight white man, rant a bit about “white grievance.” THREAD 1/

I’ve had a tremendous amount of privilege my whole life, and I didn’t even realize it for decades, because that’s how privilege works: When you have it, it’s invisible to you, until you have the life experiences or put the work in to recognize it. 2/

Otherwise, it’s easy to not even know it’s there, because it’s just always been part of the fabric of who you are, ESPECIALLY when you're in a cultural bubble where everyone around you also has it.

*beckons you close and whispers* THAT’S LITERALLY WHY IT’S CALLED PRIVILEGE.

3/

“An immunity granted to a specific type of person.” It’s a passive effect, something you don’t ever have to think about. That makes it so easy for opportunitists, like our moist festering boil of a president, to convince you that it doesn’t exist. 4/

I grew up lower-middle-class, an only child of a single working Mom, going to school with a lot of rich kids who had so much more wealth than I could ever imagine. In that context, I never felt privileged. 5/

I didn’t have family money like those rich preppy fucks, I wasn’t popular or on the football team, I didn’t date cheerleaders or go to the cool parties. In that bubble, the concept that you're STILL inherently privileged by your race/gender never even enters your mind. 6/

I would have laughed if someone said, when I was growing up, that I was institutionally advantaged and had nothing to complain about. “White privilege?? What the fuck?? I’m a poor chubby loser in K-Mart clothes and the rich preppies laugh at me!!” 7/

My way of dealing was to define myself as an outsider, a weirdo, an artist, a rebel, someone antagonistic to the “privilege” that surrounded me (even though the opportunity to define myself that way was, in and of itself, a privilege). 8/

So I get how the term “white privilege” can be easily weaponized by right-wing charlatans, how easy it is to sell downtrodden white folks on the idea that liberals are trying to make them feel guilty for an "advantage" they certainly don't see when they're working three jobs. 9/

But the truth in all of it is so much more complicated, and the fucked up part is that most of the low-info racist bigot white folks who eagerly reject this “privilege” narrative are being fucked over and manipulated by wealthier, savvier, OTHER WHITE PEOPLE. 10/

The poor working-class white folks are actually the freaks and geeks sitting at the loser table. They have so much more in common with their perceived "enemies" than they realize, while their REAL enemies are the country club assholes laughing at them from the popular table. 11/

We're actually all in the same boat. It's really 99% vs 1%. But these fragile white fuckers are being conned into VOTING for the people who hold them down, against their own interests, because conservatives have tapped into the easy id of racism and victimization. 12/

Again, growing up in a predominantly white Catholic suburb, I didn’t understand anything about the inherent advantages I had in American society. All I knew is that most of the kids at my public school were a lot richer than I was, and that felt like I was disadvantaged. 13/

But I'm not a lunkheaded dipshit, so I was able to understand that I actually had a tremendous built-in societal advantage just because of who I was, and anything holding me back along the way was either personal or systemic. That's what all these racist dolts don't get. 14/

I had to grow up and see the world to realize how lucky I was to never have anyone question or be against me because of the color of my skin; reject my rights as a human being because of my sexual orientation; belittle me because of my gender; fear me because of my religion. 15/

A lot of people never get that opportunity, never leave that bubble, and that makes them easy marks for rich powerful white conservative shitmongers who sell the idea that "others" are ruining the country, that "others" are taking something away somehow by just existing. 16/

To my fellow straight white Americans: The people ruining this country, and the people making your life harder every day...... they look JUST LIKE YOU. They just have more money, more power, and a bigger megaphone. It's a big fat con job. 17/

The political genius of “white grievance” is rooted specifically in the invisibility of privilege. When discrimination has never affected you, it’s easy to believe it isn’t real - ESPECIALLY when you’re working your ass off just to make ends meet. 18/

It feels like an insult for someone to tell you that you’re “privileged” when every day is a struggle. A much easier narrative to buy into is that those “others” are somehow taking something away from you, and THAT’S why your life is getting harder. 19/

"When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression." That's the opening that the right uses to dig at the emotions of white working class people, to convince them that THEY'RE the victims. 20/

And the fucked up part is, they ARE victims, just not in the way they think they are. They're victims of a lying, cheating ruling class that plays on their ignorance, their emotions, their fears, their religion, their desperation. 21/

They’re victims of rich white conmen who count on these poor saps to blame everyone except the system that holds them down; the system benefitting the objectively evil 1% who holds 99% of the wealth and power in this country; 22/

The system that tells them universal healthcare is bad while their family members die from lack of insurance or from opioid addiction; The system that tells them social benefits and minimum wage increases are “handouts” for “welfare queens” while they hustle for $9/hour; 23/

The system that tells them global warming is a liberal hoax, while their children march towards an apocalyptic future; The system that tells them the “job creators” should get tax cuts, and if you just pull up your boot straps maybe some day you’ll get rich, too. 24/

We're all victims of this system, and we all have a common enemy, but even after everything, a certain portion of white people in this country refuse to recognize it. And you know what? I'm fucking DONE with those selfish morons. They've had EVERY chance to wake the fuck up. 25/

Fuck you if you're so hateful that you're still buying into the cheap lie that brown people are somehow the reason your life sucks. Absolutely fuck entirely off. Your victim card is worn out, and now you're just a hateful racist. That's the only explanation left. 26/

Grow the fuck up and realize you’re being played. In the meantime, the rest of us will be fighting tooth and nail on behalf of ALL Americans to make YOUR lives better. 27/

We'll be fighting to give you healthcare, living wages, childcare, less war, better education, a non-apocalyptic environment, equal opportunities for all, and no fucking babies in motherfucking cages, you sadistic shitheels. END RANT/